Showdown for the ages

Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are scheduled to play each other during the 2014 NFL regular season, but if Manning happens to retire at the end of this season — and there are indications he’ll at least explore the idea — then Sunday’s matchup will be the final time we see these great quarterbacks on the same field.

Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are scheduled to play each other during the 2014 NFL regular season, but if Manning happens to retire at the end of this season — and there are indications he’ll at least explore the idea — then Sunday’s matchup will be the final time we see these great quarterbacks on the same field.

The rivalry between the two superstars has dominated the NFL landscape for the past decade, and their memorable head-to-head encounters are central to the debate of which quarterback is superior.

The Manning-Brady situation is unique, in that it’s an individual rivalry within the framework of a team sport. Most of the great rivalries feature head-to-head competition: think Ali-Frazier, Nadal-Federer and Nicklaus-Palmer.

But trying to get that same individual rivalry in team sports is often difficult. For years, the NHL has hoped a Sidney Crosby-Alexander Ovechkin would take over, but the pair of superstars are almost a decade into their careers and have only one head-to-head playoff matchup — a second-round affair in 2009 that didn’t have a title or championship appearance at stake.

Even the two greatest hockey players of the previous generation — Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux — never faced off against one another in a single truly meaningful NHL game.

In the NFL, Dan Marino and John Elway were the equivalents of Brady and Manning in the 1980s and 1990s, and yet for all of their brilliance and dominance of the AFC during that span, the two Hall of Fame quarterbacks only met once in the post-season, and it was in the twilight of their careers (Elway was 38 years old and Marino was 37). Steve Young and Brett Favre did meet four times in the post-season, but neither quarterback was ever truly in the conversation as the greatest of all time like Brady and Manning seem to be.

Baseball’s biggest rivalry of the past 20 years has been between the Red Sox and Yankees and yet it’s nearly impossible to hand pick an individual matchup to focus on from their epic playoff battles. Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez faced each other twice in the playoffs, but the Yankee and Red Sox brands always seemed to overshadow the stars on the field.

That’s the opposite case when it comes to Brady and Manning; it was never the Colts against the Patriots, or the Broncos against the Patriots. This weekend in Denver, no matter how much each tries to downplay his role, the game will be hailed as Manning vs. Brady IV.

Here’s a look at the other individual rivalries that join Manning and Brady in the top five of all time.

1. Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson

The seeds of this rivalry were actually planted in college, when the two young stars faced off against each other in the NCAA title game in 1979. They would go on to meet each other in three separate NBA Finals in the 1980s, with Johnson’s Lakers emerging victorious over Bird’s Celtics on two occasions.

2. Wilt Chamberlain vs. Bill Russell

Before there was Magic versus Bird, there was a classic battle of the big men in the paint in the 1960s. Chamberlain and Russell met an astounding eight times in the playoffs, with Russell’s Celtics winning seven of those series — including twice in the NBA Finals.

3. Joe DiMaggio vs. Ted Williams

Ted Williams always seemed to play second fiddle to Joe DiMaggio — whether it was in the standings or in the press. Williams never won a World Series title during his Hall of Fame career, with his Red Sox finishing in second place in the American League five times. Meanwhile, DiMaggio’s won an incredible nine titles with his Yankees juggernaut in the same era. Their rivalry reached its pinnacle in 1941, when Williams hit .406 — but was passed over as American League MVP by the writers, who deemed DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak more impressive. They played in almost 200 head-to-head games — a number that would have been higher if each man hadn’t lost three seasons to active military duty.

4. Gordie Howe vs. Maurice Richard

This NHL rivalry in the 1950s had a political and cultural flavour to it, as most Quebecers embraced their francophone star in Maurice Richard, while western Canadians tended to prefer Gordie Howe. In 1953-54, Richard led the NHL in goals, while Howe finished first in points, and the two teams squared off in the Stanley Cup final. In fact, they met in four Stanley Cup finals in a span of just five years from 1952 — 1956. And to show how evenly matched they were, they split those championship meetings with two titles apiece.

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